FAQ

Despite what other reviewers here have said, this documentary is
incredibly well done.

Like anything else, there is a bit of bias.

But personally, I believe the outlook portrayed by the film makers
aligns with the situation on the ground; this story does not deviate
from the books or articles I have read.

It is not that the Afghan War has been lost, but rather that it was
unwinnable from the start; the history of the region should have been
the first clue; Alexander the Great, the British, the Russians, and the
US and ISAF to name a few - and there were many - let alone that a
centralized government in Afghanistan (regardless of the capital -
Kabul, Herat, Kandahar) has never been effective, with the exception of
Abdur Rahman in the late 1800s: using money from the British, he
created one of the most repressive regimes in Afghan history, crushed
all opposition, and ruled by fear. Certainly, then, a far cry from the
Jeffersonian democracy we have tried to install (which, I might add, is
riddled with corruption; Karzai is a joke).

The Marines performed their duties nearly flawlessly. The modern
battlefield is one of the most mentally taxing in world history; the
"Three Block War" captures only a piece of this, particularly as
Improvised Explosive Devices have added a major variable to the
equation (and are now the number one cause of Coalition casualties).

To me, this film presents them as doing the absolute best job they can
- and then some - in a situation that can only go from bad to worse.

The only major flaw, and why I've given it a 9, is because it fails to
discuss that the Afghans interviewed here, natives of southern
Afghanistan, are Pashtun, the ethnic group from which the Afghan
Taliban are primarily comprised. No wonder, then, that they would be
more sympathetic to the "sons of this land," rather than foreign
Americans and Afghan National Army troops of a different ethnicity
(Tajik, Uzbek, Hazara).

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